Another ridiculously simple-looking, but pleasing character design: Poliwag!

Sometimes, there are character designs so minimalistic, I can’t help but think, “Man, I wish I could have gotten away with something like that in my college character drawing class.” From a purely facetious perspective, Poliwag seems to be “just” a sphere with a face and stumpy legs.

But “minimalist” doesn’t automatically mean “bad.” Oddish, for example, stole my heart despite being a plain radish. Fortunately for Poliwag, what it does have in its presentation – however nominal – works well. It’s a streamlined portrayal of tadpoles, right down to the translucent skin that’s present on some species!

Indeed, that swirl on Poliwag’s tummy represents its visible intestines! As an added bonus, it can undulating the marking to hypnotize its enemies, just as you’d expect from such a symbol. It’s impressive how a single basic shape was used so effectively!

My one critique about Poliwag is that its eyes shouldn’t be perfectly flat on its face. A few older sprites showed them bulging out, which I feel is a better fit with the bug-eyed appearance of the real things.

At the end of the day, however, it’s just a personal nitpick that doesn’t affect Poliwag’s overall appeal.

It may be a sphere with a face and stumpy legs, but Poliwag is a solid minimalist tadpole character.

As expected from a tadpole, Poliwag has undergone metamorphosis into a frog… sort of. It’s not quite there yet, being halfway between the two forms.

Amusingly, despite Poliwhirl evolving to walk around on two legs, it’s arms don’t seem entirely developed. Its hands are adorable mittens that it curls into boxing gloves. Poliwhirl will eventually become half-Fighting if it evolves into Poliwrath, so this concept makes sense.

For a little extra trivia, the front legs on real frogs are often the last to grow when they deviate from their tadpole origins. With this knowledge, the “mitten” hands work perfectly with Poliwhirl’s design!

Even more, there’s a species of frog with its organs still fully visible – the glass frog!

Poliwhirl’s spiral belly would be fine even without the existence of the glass frog, but it’s impressive to see how much research went behind its design!

Poliwhirl addresses my critique about Poliwag’s eyes – they now clearly bulge from the top of its body. I think this looks much more interesting on the character, with an added bonus of giving Poliwhirl a stronger silhouette.

A bipedal brawling frog is a wacky and fun concept. Poliwhirl does more than be Pokémon’s “obligatory” frog monster, and in a good way!

Oh dear…

Poliwrath, dude… did we not recently discuss the “barely any different” problem a couple articles ago?

To be fair, Poliwrath kind of follows my stance about minor Pokémon evolutions. To compensate for the lack of any significant changes (apart from its hands), its overall body shape is different… if you squint really hard.

I think Poliwrath’s design could be enhanced to better reflect its brawny build. I’m not saying it has to be exaggerated like a bodybuilder, but it should have a little extra definition to its body shape so that one doesn’t have to squint to tell it apart from Poliwhirl.

Let me step away from bashing Poliwrath’s visual design and talk about the lore behind it. Perhaps things get more interesting there.

There’s actually a catch to evolving Poliwhirl into Poliwrath. It’s another one of those Pokémon obtainable only through an evolutionary stone – in this case, a Water Stone. When you think about how Poliwrath becomes part Fighting-type, it’s like the player character has to throw steroids at the beast to build its muscles. I’m speaking about this concept theoretically, as the Pokédex doesn’t back up that last statement. Regardless, it’s a hilariously awesome thought.

Even with that thought in mind, Poliwrath is still incredibly underwhelming. Water Stones aren’t nearly as rare as Moon Stones, but the point is that you have to go out of your way to find this special item just to evolve your Pokémon. All that work and effort, and all that Poliwhirl becomes is… “Poliwhirl 2.0,” but with the Fighting type added.

I feel awful dismissing a Pokémon with that terrible joke, I really do. I’ve done it several times now, and I feel it makes me look like I expect every monster to reinvent themselves when they evolve. But I can’t escape the feeling that Poliwrath could be just a little more. The idea for the character is there, but it needs some fine-tuning to its visual design to truly shine.

Well, I suppose I got my wish after all. I complained that Poliwrath looked too “boring,” and then Generation II introduced a second evolution for Poliwhirl to pick from. By physically trading Poliwhirl to another Trainer while holding an item called the King’s Rock, it takes this alternate path into Politoed.

A neon green, more normal-looking frog is certainly a surprising twist for Poliwhirl. The “identity crisis” argument could be made on account of the stark contrast between the plain Water-type Politoed and the Water-Fighting Poliwrath. But if you ask me, I don’t feel that Politoed is a terrible fit with the rest of the Poliwag line.

For one, the central “tadpole metamorphosis” theme remains in-tact, even if Poliwhirl becomes Politoed. In context with the Poliwag family, it’s a conspicuous design that doesn’t require explanation through flavor text. Compare this to Bellossom, who had diddly squat in its biography to clear up why it abandoned the rafflesia arnoldii concept.

An interesting thought is how Poliwhirl can either disrupt normal tadpole growth and remain as a half-frog monster, or it can mature into a frog proper. This is a wonderful idea devised by the artists at Game Freak, and I can’t believe the Pokémon franchise is about the only time I’ve seen such a thing in action!

I adore how all of Politoed’s visual elements are arranged. It has a limited color pallette that it uses superbly, using splashes of yellow to add more texture and variance on its bright green body. The single strand of curly hair may feel somewhat random to its design, but it adds a whimsical charm to Politoed’s character. Coupled with those beaming eyes, Politoed is an all-around precious character design.

I’m glad that the spiral intestines weren’t entirely left out of Politoed’s design. It’s still hinted by the big swirl on its tummy. It helps keep Politoed’s composition balanced, as having the exact same spiral as Poliwag’s would have likely overwhelmed the rest of its design.

I haven’t even gotten into why Politoed is obtained through a King’s Rock. Well, it’s more of a theory, as the games don’t actually explain what a “King’s Rock” is. Basically, it’s this little stone crown, as seen below:

This item makes more sense when reading Politoed’s Pokédex entries. A few games mention that Poliwag and Poliwhirl are instinctively drawn – even obedient – to Politoed’s loud, echoing croaks. In a way, Politoed “rules over” its pre-evolved brethren.

Poliwhirl needs the King’s Rock so that it can become a frog emperor to all the other little frogs in the world. That’s an exceptionally precious detail to an already darling character!

If there’s one major critique I can get off my shoulders, it’s that Politoed has an unbearably atrocious idle animation in the Generation VI+ Pokémon games.

Are you kidding me, Game Freak? It just vacantly stares into space with its arms lazily dangling, like you did with Meowth? You practically animated it in a t-pose! Unbelieveable!

Look back up at Politoed’s official artwork. Look at how dynamic it’s posed just by raising its arms. Take a look at its sprite animation from Black/White Version – hell, even gander at the energy in its pitiful Emerald Version animation!

Even if Politoed was modeled to be sitting down like it used to in the Generation II games, at least the minimal animation would be excusable. It’d be at rest, so of course it wouldn’t be moving much!

Oh well, good thing that my strict analysis of a 3D model isn’t a dealbreaker for my love of Politoed.

Politoed is one of those characters that makes me smile to look at. Visually, it’s somewhat of a curveball as an evolution for Poliwhirl. At the same time, I feel it fits right in with the rest of the evolutionary family.

Before I end this article, there’s one piece of trivia I wanted to share, but couldn’t find enough credible sources to back it up. Politoed is one of the few Pokémon who can have Drizzle as its ability. I have a distinct memory that this references folklore surrounding frogs as rainmakers and signs of a good harvest. However, this is the only remotely credible source I found, suggesting it’s a general Native American belief. Since this website doesn’t have a bibliography, and was the only website I found with this information, I can only add this potential trivia as a side note.